Too Close For Comfort

15 Points Per Correct Answer - No time limit  

1. Let's start off with a simple question: Which of the following distances would not be appropriate to measure by estimation? the distance to your friend who's across the room the distance from Earth to Neptune the distance between your thumb and forefinger the distance between two cities in your area

2. Driving right along, what is the instrument used to measure distance in a car called? odometer differential pinion speedometer thermometer

3. Still on the subject of driving, let's say you get another car, this time with black opaque windows, but no distance measuring devices. Which of the following objects would you need to measure how far you've driven? stopwatch cellular phone compass geiger counter

4. Which of the following measurements is not a unit of distance? Parsec Angstrom Cubit Ammeter

5. Measuring distances to far-away galaxies and star clusters is no easy task. What is the name for the method that uses objects with set luminosities, and uses the distance modulus to measure the distance to them? Schwartzschild limit Compton scattering Standard candles Cosmic microwave background radiation

6. By shining a light, usually of a certain wavelength, on a crystal lattice, we can accurately measure the distance between the atoms by measuring the spacing of the bars of light and dark patches that miraculously appear. What is this phenomenon called? renormalization semipermeability diffraction conductivity

7. Looking at a distant galaxy, you find that its Balmer lines (lines of absorption in the observable spectrum by different [known] elements) differ from what you'd expect to find in a lab here on Earth. Measuring this difference, you know the distance to the galaxy. This is commonly known as what? virial theorem inflaton Einstein condensation redshift

8. There exists a "natural" length unit, at which (theoretically) quantum mechanics and general relativity coincide. Who proposed this length unit? Max Planck Erwin Schrödinger Paul Dirac Albert Einstein

9. Standing on a remote mountain peak, a surveyor can figure out where he is on his map by measuring the azimuth to two other points of reference that are more well known and the distance between them. What is this method commonly known as? disambiguation canonization triangulation non-Euclidean geometry

10. Submarines underwater find their distance to objects using a method similar to which of the following animals? Manatees Diamondback terrapins Hammerhead sharks Humpback whales